[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 18 (Tuesday, January 28, 2003)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 4105-4107]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-1747]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

47 CFR Part 54

[CC Docket 96-45; FCC 02-339]


The Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: In this document, the Commission grants relief to parties who 
have, after September 12, 2001, mailed

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to the Commission requests for review of an action of the Universal 
Service Administrative Company (Administrator) pursuant to section 54 
of the Commission rules. We're deeming certain request filed after 
September 12, 2001 with the Commission as timely and we grant others a 
60 day opportunity to resubmit their pleadings. The Commission takes 
this action to ensure that these parties are not prejudiced by 
continuing disruptions in the mail service.

DATES: Effective February 27, 2003.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sheryl Todd (202) 418-7400 TTY: (202) 
418-0484.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Commission's Order 
in CC Docket No. 96-45 released on January 7, 2003. The full text of 
this document is available on the Commission's Web site Electronic 
Comment Filing System and for public inspection during regular business 
hours in the FCC Reference Center, Room CY-A257, 445 Twelfth Street, 
SW., Washington, DC 20554.

I. Introduction

    1. In this Order, the Commission deems certain requests for review 
as timely filed with the Commission, and we grant other petitioners a 
60-day opportunity to resubmit their pleadings electronically. 
Specifically, this relief is provided to parties who have, after 
September 12, 2001, mailed to the Commission requests for review of an 
action of the Universal Service Administrative Company (Administrator) 
pursuant to section 54 of our rules, or petitions for reconsideration 
or applications for review arising from such pleadings (hereinafter 
collectively referred to as ``requests for review''). The Commission 
takes this action to ensure that these parties are not prejudiced by 
continuing disruptions in the mail service.
    2. On December 24, 2001, we released the Interim Filing Procedures 
Order, 67 FR 3620, January 25, 2002, in response to disruptions in mail 
service arising from the events of September 11, 2001. In the Interim 
Filing Procedures Order, we established that, in addition to the then-
available methods of filing requests for review with the Commission, 
including mail or electronic submission through the Commission's 
Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS), parties could also file by 
facsimile or electronic mail. We instructed that, if requests for 
review were filed by electronic mail, pleadings should be filed at the 
following e-mail address: [email protected] and could be submitted 
in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), Word, WordPerfect, or any 
other widely used word processing format. We further instructed that, 
if filed by facsimile, pleadings should be faxed to 202-418-0187, and 
that the fax transmission should include a cover sheet listing contact 
name, phone number, and, if available, an e-mail address. We made these 
methods optional. Thus, parties could, if they wished, continue to file 
requests for review by mail, manual delivery, or overnight delivery.
    3. The Commission further provided that, where a party had mailed a 
request for review to the Commission on or after September 12, 2001, 
and that request for review was timely as of the date of mailing, the 
party could resubmit its request for review electronically within 30 
days of the effective date of the Interim Filing Procedures Order, and 
have the request for review treated as having been filed with the 
Commission on the date that it was originally mailed. We provided this 
refiling option so that parties who had submitted their requests for 
review prior to the issuance of the Interim Filing Procedures Order 
might take advantage of the new electronic filing methods to ensure 
that their requests for review were timely received despite delays with 
the mail.
    4. Since the Interim Filing Procedures Order was published in the 
Federal Register on January 24, 2002, we have received many requests 
for review that were submitted via United States mail. These parties 
did not take advantage of the new electronic filing options or the 
existing option to file via ECFS.
    5. Under Commission rules, documents are considered to be filed 
with the Commission only upon receipt. Upon receipt, the Office of the 
Secretary date-stamps the appeals as received. Based on our review of 
the FCC date-stamp of the appeals, many mailed requests for review 
arrived at the Commission more than 60 days from the issuance of the 
decision being appealed. Thus, even under our Interim Filing Procedures 
Order, these appeals would be considered untimely. When comparing the 
FCC date-stamp to the postmark date or the date of the pleading, 
however, it is evident that some of these mailed requests for review 
were substantially delayed in transit due to continuing disruptions in 
mail service to federal agencies.
    6. In our Interim Filing Procedures Order, we granted certain 
relief based on our belief that the mail system would return to normal 
operation. We have reviewed appeals filed by mail that were received 
after the release of the Interim Filing Procedures Order. From that 
review, we determined that there continued to be significant delays for 
appeals filed by mail. Only recently have we found that we are 
receiving requests for review within a reasonable time of the 
applicants' postmark. As such, we believe it is appropriate to extend 
the relief we originally ordered. Therefore, because of the 
unprecedented mail delays caused by the September 11, 2001 attacks and 
the subsequent appearance of anthrax in the United States mail system, 
we now conclude that it is appropriate to grant relief to certain 
parties that continued to rely on the United States mail to file 
pleadings with the FCC. The filings made by these petitioners fall into 
two categories. The first category of filings include petitions that 
are actually dated and/or have a postmarked date on the envelope that 
indicates that the petitioners took reasonable steps to ensure that its 
application would be timely filed. The second category of filings 
include requests that are not dated and arrived at the FCC secretary's 
office without proof of postmark.
    7. Petitioners in the first category are set forth in Attachment C. 
Based on the dates of the requests for review and/or the postmarked 
dates on the envelopes when compared with the FCC-date stamp, we find 
that these petitioners reasonably complied with the terms of the 
Interim Filing Procedures Order. We find that these petitioners mailed 
their requests for review in a timely fashion. But for the disruptions 
in the mail service, their pleadings would have arrived at the 
Commission within the 60-day appeal period. Accordingly, we deem these 
requests for review as timely filed pursuant to this Order. Therefore, 
we direct that these requests for review shall be reviewed on their 
merits.
    8. The Commission has also received several requests for review 
that either were not dated or did not have a postmark date. During the 
disruptions in the mail service and the implementation of the ensuing 
security measures, these pleadings were separated from their envelopes 
before they arrived in the FCC's Office of the Secretary. Thus, we do 
not have proof of postmark for these pleadings. We shall afford these 
petitioners an opportunity to resubmit their requests for review with 
proof that their original submissions were timely filed. These requests 
for review may be resubmitted electronically or by facsimile within 60 
days of the release date of this Order. All requests for review re-
submitted pursuant to this paragraph shall be accompanied by a signed 
affidavit or a declaration pursuant to Commission rule Sec.  1.16 
stating the date on which the

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pleading was originally sent for delivery to the Commission and by what 
means (i.e., by U.S. mail, express courier, or hand delivery). For this 
purpose only, the new pleading will be considered filed as of the date 
on which the original pleading was sent for delivery. The provisions of 
this paragraph are applicable to the petitioners listed in Attachment D 
of this Order. To the extent that it is determined that other filings 
not listed herein merit relief, we delegate to the Bureau the authority 
to grant such relief in keeping with this Order.
    9. In addition, although we will continue to allow parties to 
submit requests for review by mail, express courier, or hand delivery, 
we note that mail in-take and processing procedures may continue to 
result in delivery disruption and affect the timeliness of their 
filings with the Commission. The Commission's filing procedures are 
designed to receive documents through the ECFS system. We strongly 
encourage parties to make use of the ECFS filing option to ensure that 
their requests for review arrive at the Commission in a timely fashion. 
Our ECFS filing option ensures accurate and more efficient processing. 
Parties will still be able to file by facsimile at 202-418-0187.

List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 54

    Communications common carriers, Health facilities, Libraries, 
Reporting and recordkeeping requirement, Schools, Telecommunications 
and Telephone.

Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene H. Dortch,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 03-1747 Filed 1-27-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P